[ Pdf The Red Door ↠´ womens-rights PDF ] by Charles Todd ↠´ This entry doesn t quite reach the high standards of the previous 11 books in the series, though it is still a very enjoyable read.These books are whydunnits than whodunnits if Todd gives you the clues to figure out everything that happened, I certainly didn t catch them all, though looking back everything fits together The place and time are well established without hitting you over the head with geography and history lessons The main mystery has plenty of twists and turns Although I can see what Todd was going for with the secondary case, it didn t completely work for me.What worked least for me and the part I usually enjoy the most were the interactions between Rutledge and his friends and family, and Rutledge s attempts to hide the aftermath o A woman waits for her husband to come back from the war, but he never comes So her life is framed, because there is no notice from the war department, she continues to have hope that some day he will return.A missionary, whose career and that of is brothers have been dictated by their father, suddenly suffers paralysis but days later somehow gets up, dresses himself and leaves the hospital His family calls in Scotland Yard and Ian Rutledge is sent to find out how this was possible and what has happened to the man What caused his health crisis and his recovery Where did he go and why Soon after the man returns with few if any answers for what has happened, the woman who has lived with hope is found dead and Rutledge finds str Lancashire, England, June, Who Was The Woman Who Lived And Died Behind The Red Door What Did She See Before She Died And Who Was The Man Who Never Came Home From The Great War, For The Simple Reason That He Had Never Really Gone How Is The Woman S Death Linked To His Disappearance And Why Is Scotland Yard Blind To The Connection, Even When Inspector Ian Rutledge Points It Out Bring on the next in the series No time to write a review got to keep reading Reason for Reading I ve always wanted to read a book by this author The reason for reading the book now though is that this was actually the very first book I received in 2010 to review and while I was putting my piles of review, won, tbr, etc books onto my new bookcase I found it grouped with the wrong books so I rectified the situation by making it my next read.Jumping in with book twelve in a mystery series has the potential to cause some problems As to an ongoing personal story there was only a brief mention of that at the beginning and the end, plus some vague references to previous solved crimes which didn t interfere with my reading at all What did make the book hard for me to get into was the character of Ian Rutledge By this time, he is a well established charact Ian Rutledge returns in his 12th case in The Red Door He must deal with a young knife wielding robber in London, a missing missionary, and the murder of a teacher named Florence in a distant village.Charles Todd has constructed a series of puzzles seemingly unrelated but perhaps they are We begin with Florence, an attractive woman, at the time of the Armistice She is waiting for her soldier husband to return from France She paints her front door a brilliant red for him to see when he comes home However, she waits for a husband who never returns.Meanwhile, in London, Rutledge is accosted by a young man named Billy who attempts to rob him as he crosses the bridge over the Thames during an evening walk Rutledge bluffs the young robber into giving up his attempt at mugging Rutl This historical mystery set in Britain in 1920 is the 12th in a series, although the story was mostly self contained I think a reader, especially a fan of old fashioned type mysteries, could up pick up The Red Door and enjoy the story Like all good mysteries, The Red Door is filled with lots of crime, twists, intrigue, a very large cast of shady characters There are large middle upper class families with many secrets, difficult co workers, village folk who try to be helpful, and solitary characters I also laughed the parrot, Jake, who even had his own personality flaws.There are some odd quirks that did take me a little bit to catch on to Inspector Rutledge is a veteran of WWI and clearly experienced some traumatic events in France that weigh heavily on him So heavily that he hears the voice of a former dead soldier having conversations Usually I really enjoy the Todd books, but this time it really felt like two different people were writing it which is always true, but noticeable this time The first part, where Ian is jolted by the train wreck and the fall out from that, feels like something that has been needing to happen for a long time in these books having him have some feelings and some depth and some connection with other characters But then that is dropped and barely touched upon for the rest of the book, as if one half of the writing pair wants to develop his character, give him emotional depth, while the other half just wants to plod on through plotlines and action The weird subplot with the murderer on the bridge also seems to go nowhere to what point is this included Is it a start of something to follow up on in the next book A little sub commentary on the fatherhood good ones and bad ones in the re

There s a voice inside his head that keeps talking to Inspector Rutledge But wait, it gets dumber The voice has a Scots accent It s called Hamish.I can make a long list of things wrong with this book, but the constant Ye ken, the lass hadna telt ye schtick made it worse every time.The next most bothersome thing was that there was practically never any sense of place Okay, at the very beginning of the book, we do get a nicely framed scene about a wartime wife waiting to welcome her husband home, thinking back over the door she s painted red as a form of greeting But from there we move from place name to place name with never any evocation of the scene Scotland Yard could be any couple of offices with a hallway between them Kitchens are never any particular size There is one sitting room, as I cast back in my memory, which has been described as decorated in a very feminine way I think I may have liked this the best of all the Ian Rutledge books to date and considered a 5 rating There is a subtle change in our main character this time out and, to me, a subtle change in Hamish as well But perhaps I m reading too much into quiet and not so quiet moments.As for the story, there are mysteries upon mysteries here and once again Rutledge is given the task of sorting out the guilty from the innocent There are reminders of the War all around and reminders of his wound A woman is bludgeoned to death in Lancashire in the house with The Red Door Not long after, a wealthy man becomes ill and is hospitalized in London only to disappear Rutledge must solve both crimes, satisfy the Superintendent who is waiting for him to fail, and continue to try to heal himself and his ability to relate to those around him

Charles Todd is the pen name used by the mother and son writing team, Caroline Todd and Charles Todd Together they write the Ian Rutledge and Bess Crawford Series They have published two standalone mystery novels and many short stories.